Testimony
	New York City Department of Health Office of Public Affairs

Good morning. I am James Gibson, Assistant Commissioner for Veterinary and Pest Control Services. As you may know, I just recently joined the Department in May of this year. I am joined by Allan Goldberg, Assistant Commissioner for Bureau Management for the Bureau of Regulatory and Environmental Health Services. Commissioner Goldberg and I would like to thank you for giving us the opportunity to speak with you today about the City's Pest Control Program.

The rodent control program in New York City includes multiple efforts by many City agencies. Within the Department of Health, the Pest Control Services (PCS) unit is housed in the Bureau of Regulatory & Environmental Health Services. It conducts inspections, exterminations and clean-up of lots in order to eliminate rodent shelter and reduce the overall rodent populations and to minimize the potential for economic losses and disease transmission.

One of the major responsibilities of the PCS is to respond to reports of rodent problems from the general public, community boards, elected officials, and other agencies and organizations. The Department's Information and Complaints Hotline, 212 442-9666 is available during regular business hours to receive complaints. Upon receipt of a complaint, the Department's Pest Control Services unit sends a Public Health Sanitarian to inspect the address and issue a report if either signs of rodents or conditions of rodent harborage exist. If such conditions exist, and the property is privately owned, the owner is issued a notification that the conditions must be abated within five days or the owner will be subject to a fine. In addition, the owner is notified that failure to act will result in action by the City to abate the nuisance -- including extermination and clearing the property of rodent harborage such as weeds, garbage, and debris -- and the owner will be charged for the cost of the cleanup and extermination services. PCS then conducts a "compliance" inspection, and, if the conditions still exist, PCS will then schedule the property for clean up and extermination treatment, including the use of rodenticide baits.

PCS also treats street areas, sewers and catch basins with rodenticides, as necessary. PCS exterminators may also check to determine that private contractors have properly baited buildings that are to be demolished and areas to be excavated. Rodent bites, which are among the diseases and conditions required to be reported to DOH under Article 11.03 of the Health Code, are investigated within 24 hours of their receipt by the Department.

The Pest Control Services unit also provides representatives to speak to community boards, homeowners association, and other community groups to educate them about efforts they can take to control and prevent rodent infestation in their neighborhoods, and distributes literature in communities around the City. The Health Department's office of Public Affairs develops educational material and posters to increase the public's awareness of rodent control measures.

Several years ago, it became evident that a complaint-driven approach alone, while useful in addressing a specific problem in a neighborhood, was not the most effective way to address area-wide rodent problems, and that a more comprehensive approach was needed. Consequently, in August 1997, at the Mayor's direction, the Comprehensive Rodent Control Initiative was launched. This three-year, neighborhood-based program focused on areas with the highest level of rodent infestation and/or complaints. Based on historical complaint data and Community Board recommendations, seventy-two 15-block areas were identified for intensive intervention. The initiative was implemented in three phases. All properties within the defined areas were inspected. Owners of private property were notified of violations on their properties. If a private owner did not remedy the situation, the Pest Control Services unit provided the necessary cleanup and extermination, with the costs being billed back to the owner. If the property is publicly owned, it was referred to the appropriate agency having jurisdiction, such as the Parks Department, Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD), NYCHA, or the Department of Transportation, for remediation.

To support these additional activities, the rodent control budget, which totaled $5.5 million in FY 1997, was more than doubled, to over $13 million in FY 2000. Staffing levels were also more than doubled - from just under 200 in FY 1996 to nearly 400 in FY 2000. The program now includes approximately 30 inspection staff, 23 exterminators, 200 workers dedicated to clean-up operations, with clerical, administrative, and operational support making up the balance.

A look at the program following the final phase in November of 1999 indicates we are headed in the right direction. Comparative data show a gradual decrease in complaints, from 20,150 in FY 96 to 15,423 in FY 1999. During this period, the number of inspections has generally doubled, from around 16,000 in FY 1996 to over 30,000 in 1999, and exterminations have increased significantly from around 35,500 in FY 96 to slightly more than 56,000 in FY 1999. Importantly, we have also seen some increase in the rate of compliance of property owners upon receiving an order from the Department to abate the nuisance, from 41 percent complying in Phase I of the program, to 55 percent in Phase III of the program. We expect to meet or exceed these measures this fiscal year. As of April 1, we had performed 30,606 inspections and 43,124 exterminations.

As you know, the additional funding to support the comprehensive initiative is being continued and is base-lined in the FY 2001 budget. Building on our experience during first three years of the initiative, we continue to refine and strengthen the program. Since the end of the third phase of the initiative in October 1999, we have instituted an enhanced program that uses a geographic approach, but does not rely on pre-selecting sites. Rather, the program is designed to incorporate information from multiple sources to determine the need for geographic intervention, and will be complemented by field assessments to verify the nature and extent of the problem. In an attempt to identify underlying conditions that may be root cause or contributors to the problem, the field assessments now involve a survey of not just the geographic area identified, but also of the surrounding areas. From these assessments, customized remediation strategies can be tailored to the needs of the specific area, including necessary follow-up plans. We believe this enhanced program will be more effective in targeting potential problem areas. In fact, a review of the last few months' experience with this more targeted approach shows that for every 100 inspections, 69 violations were identified, as opposed to approximately 38 per 100 inspections under the previous initiative.

We are also working to strengthen our interagency collaborative efforts and to expand community education efforts, also in partnership with other City agencies, focusing on garbage handling practices and other preventive actions. In addition, the enhanced geographic approach will include continuous reevaluation, assessment and/or remediation of certain problem areas while maintaining the capacity to respond to all complaints.

Even though the Department of Health has the primary enforcement responsibility for rodent control activities, through our authority under the New York City Health Code, rodent control is a problem that involves many City agencies, both individually and in cooperation with the Department of Health. Several other agencies, have provided descriptions of their programs, which I am including in my testimony, so that you may have a more comprehensive view of the City's activities.

The Department of Sanitation is our major partner and plays a critical role in removing garbage, a potential source of food for rodents. The Department of Health and the Department of Sanitation also share a long history of cooperation on lot cleaning issues. DOS acts as an agent for the Health Department in removing garbage and other debris from vacant lots within New York City. DOH assumes responsibility for those lots that contain structures or buildings. This referral system between the two agencies has worked for many years. DOS had cleaned 1,028 private lots and 4,121 City-owned lots by May 30 of FY 2000.

The New York City Department of Housing Preservation and Development (HPD) is active in pest control in several ways. Through private exterminators, HPD provides extermination services once a month in buildings, including basements and apartments that they operate as a result of confiscation because of property tax arrears. Vacant buildings in HPD's portfolio receive pest control services on a complaint basis. In addition, when HPD residential buildings are being returned to private ownership, even though these prospective owners are responsible for pest control, HPD will provide additional pest control services in cases of significant or chronic problems. In their role as enforcer of the Housing Maintenance Code, HPD housing inspectors, in response to complaints, also write violations in privately-owned buildings for pest control problems. Their field operations also cooperate with the Health Department's Pest Control Initiative to remedy problems in properties under HPD's jurisdiction in geographical areas being targeted by the initiative.

The Parks Department uses an Integrated Pest Management approach to rodent and pest control in parks, emphasizing preventive techniques and safe, effective placement of pesticides after careful monitoring. Frequent garbage pickups, as often as twice daily in known "hot spots," reduce food sources, and Parks Department staff are experimenting with closed containers and reinforced liners that allow for easier rubbish removal. Overgrown plants are pruned to discourage rodent haborage. Many City-owned abandoned properties, such as former Greenstreet sites, have been cleaned of debris and replanted. Recreation and parks facilities are inspected for potential points of entry and repaired to prevent infestation. Borough crews respond to rat complaints from the public by baiting the problem area within 48 hours of receiving the complaint. Baiting is done carefully to assure that it is not accessible to children and pets. Appropriate signage posted in nine different languages describes pest control policies and notifies the public when pesticides have been applied; signs include a description of the pesticide and emergency telephone numbers.

As one of New York City's largest property owners, NYCHA plays an important role in rodent control. The Authority actively works with DOH in the Comprehensive Rodent Control Initiative and identifies problem sites on its property or adjacent property within the initiative's targeted areas. It responds to complaints and violations identified by DOH, and in addition, schedules routine treatments of apartments four to five times per year, and public spaces, including grounds, compactor rooms, and basements, are treated monthly. Also, NYCHA's pest control supervisors conduct inspections to identify field or structural conditions, such as holes, leaks, or other defects which are conducive to rat infestation. They report these conditions to supervisors of the development for corrective action. Vacant lots on NYCHA properties are also cleaned and fenced in to discourage illegal dumping. Furthermore, NYCHA has installed exterior trash compactors, which store garbage in sealed containers, at developments throughout the City. There are 112 compactors at 44 developments which are fully operational, and compactors at 15 locations are currently under construction. An additional 33 sites are scheduled for completion by the end of 2001.

In addition, NYCHA is a major participant in the Lehman Village House's IPM project. This EPA-funded project is a collaborative effort between the Lehman Village Houses Tenant's Association, NYCHA, the New York City Department of Health, and the Hunter College Center for Environmental and Occupational Health. This voluntary pilot project was developed in response to extremely high asthma rates in the East Harlem area of New York City. It is intended to demonstrate the benefits of implementing Integrated Pest Management techniques to control two common triggers for asthma-cockroaches and rodents, and reduce the need for pesticides. This project utilizes resident education, employment and training, as well as inspections of apartments, buildings and grounds. It also employs resident surveys and scientific sampling to quantitatively measure pest populations and the affect of IPM techniques in reducing the overall pest population. These efforts have resulted in a dramatic and substantial decrease in the cockroach and rodent populations and have been enthusiastically welcomed by the residents .

The Department of Health is excited about the success of the Lehman Village Houses IPM project, and is working on ways to increase our utilization of IPM techniques in our rodent control operations. We recognize that conventional pest control methods, which involve repeated application of pesticides, do not offer a long-term solution to controlling infestations. We recognize that our goal of effectively reducing the carrying capacity of the pest populations can only be realized when we address the underlying causes of the infestations, namely ready access to food, water, and shelter. We also recognize that we cannot achieve this goal alone. We must enlist the help of the citizens of New York City to reduce the availability of food from inside their homes and within their neighborhoods. We must promote the importance of stoppage in preventing the entry of rodents into dwellings and encourage property owners to repair any gaps in the exterior of their buildings at ground level or below.

The Department of Health will continue to work toward strengthening both design and implementation of its rodent control program. We are working on improving our methods of measuring and controlling rodent populations, and we will work with property owners and communities to ensure both cooperation and compliance. We plan to expand our public education and community outreach efforts in several ways. We are currently developing additional public education materials, and are in the process of hiring a public health educator. We also plan to utilize our Community Relations unit in the Office of Public Affairs to provide additional community education opportunities. For example, we recently created a "Speaker's Bureau" to provide presentations and answer questions at community meetings on the West Nile virus, and we expect to use this same structure to expand our community education on rodent control. In addition, we are working toward more effective partnerships with other City and State agencies on surveillance and abatement efforts. We are continuing to streamline our internal communications and are nearing completion of a data management system that will greatly improve our efficiency.

Finally, I want to take this opportunity to thank the City Council members for the additional $900,000 that was provided in the FY 2001 budget and we look forward to working with the Mayor's office and the City Council on plans for enhancing our current program.

Once again, thank you for continued interest and support for the City's rodent control activities. At this time, I will be happy to answer any of your questions.